Saturday, January 7, 2017

An Overview of the
Scientific Components Behind this Success, and a Free Implementation Guide for
Those Who Want to Follow

Dear Colleague,

Happy New Year !!!I hope
that your holiday season was filled with joy and family, and that your 2017 is
your most successful year yet.

Before the holiday break, we were very pleased to have the Martin County
(KY) School District’s five-year School Climate Transformation Grant and its
middle and high school sites highlighted in Education Week’s series on
“Response-to-Intervention: The Next Generation.”

We were instrumental in Martin County
receiving this grant [CLICK HERE for our grant-writing services], and they are
implementing Project ACHIEVE’s Positive Behavioral Support System (PBSS) as the
cornerstone of their district- and school-wide discipline and classroom
management approach.

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Education Week Summary

In the piece (published on December 13,
2016), the following important points were made:

* Many Martin County families are living in
poverty (the district is in Eastern Kentucky’s coal country); many students
have been exposed to alcohol and drug abuse; and many teachers need to respond
to students’ “backgrounds of trauma” in order to focus on academics and
instruction

* School staff (teachers, mental health
support staff, administrators) discuss--weekly--the information and data
related to students’ academic and social, emotional, and behavioral progress;
and the supports and interventions (when necessary) that help address students’
needs

* Students, parents, and community and
agency leaders are involved in and an integral part of the planning,
discussions, and strategies that are implemented

* District and school personnel have
embraced the importance of teaching and reinforcing positive student
behavior, rather than depending on zero tolerance, punishment, and
suspensions (although this is an ongoing challenge)

* The schools have recognized the need for multi-tiered
services, supports, and strategies because some students need more
strategic or intensive interventions relative to their academic and social,
emotional, and behavioral needs

* These services and supports are need-based.That is, students to do not have to receive a
certain number of Tier I or II interventions to “qualify” to receive Tier III
approaches, and functional assessment to determine the underlying reasons
for students’ challengesbegins in Tier I.

* Thus, the multi-tiered (Tier I, II,
and III) Project ACHIEVE (academic and behavior/Positive Behavioral Support) system
was implemented simultaneously.(That is, the schools did not implement Tier I for a year or two, then
Tier II for a year or two, and then Tier III.)

* Finally, the system is working.Staff and students demonstrate their
continuous support, they are internalizing and independently implementing the
approaches, and the feedback and data are demonstrating progress and success

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The Scientific Components of “the
System”

While Martin County is implementing the
scientific components of its school discipline system over a three-to-five-year
period of time, the five scientific components that “anchor” its success have
been present and growing from the beginning.

Moreover, the six schools in this County
District have recognized that these scientific components are interdependent,
and that they eliminate the need for a number of separate programs that often overwhelm
and side-track many other districts.These
programs include those focusing on:

Significantly, most of these programs (a)
are not evidence-based; (b) are not rooted in cognitive-behavioral science; (c)
do not focus on student self-management outcomes; and/or (d) are narrow in
scope, rather than broad in impact.More
often than not, while well-intended, these programs sound good in theory, but--in practice--they do not explicitly utilize all five of the scientific
components needed for comprehensive success:

* Positive Relationships and
School/Classroom Climate* Positive Behavioral Expectations and
Skills Instruction* Student Motivation and Accountability* Consistency* Applications to All Settings and the
Peer Group

These components are briefly described
below.

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Positive
Relationships and School/Classroom Climate

Effective schools work consciously,
planfully, and on an on-going basis to develop, reinforce, and sustain
positive and productive relationships so that their cross-school and
in-classroom climates mirror these relationships.

Critically, however, these relationships
include the following:Students to
Students, Students to Staff, Staff to Staff, Students to Parents, and Staff to
Parents.

But functionally, they involve training and
reinforcement.For example, students
need to learn the social and interactional skills that build positive
relationships with others, and the peer group must “buy into” the process.

Similarly, teachers need to recognize the
importance of committing to effective communication, collaboration, and
collegial consultation.But, they also
need to have the skills to accomplish these. . . in good times and bad.

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_

Positive
Behavioral Expectations and Skills Instruction

Students--from preschool through high
school--need to know the explicit social, emotional, and behavioral
expectations in the classrooms and across the common areas of the school.These expectations need to be communicated as
“what they need to do,” rather than “what they do not need to do.”

Critically, teachers and administrators will
have more success teaching students to (a) walk down the hallway, rather than not
run; (b) raise your hand and wait to be called on, rather than don’t
blurt out answers; (c) accept a consequence, rather than don’t roll your
eyes, and give me attitude.

In addition, these expectations need to
be behaviorally specific--that is, we need to describe exactly what we
want the students to do (e.g., in the hallways, bathrooms, cafeteria, and on
the bus).

It is not instructionally helpful to talk in
constructs--telling students that they need to be “Respectful, Responsible,
Polite, Safe, and Trustworthy.”This is
because each of these constructs involve a wide range of behaviors, and it
is the behaviors we need to teach so that students can fully demonstrate
the global constructs that we want.

Said a different way:You can’t teach a behavioral construct;
we need to teach the behaviors that represent
the construct.

But we also must teach these social,
emotional, and behavioral skills. . . the same way that we teach a
football team, an orchestra, a drama club, or an academic task.We need to teach the skills and its steps,
to demonstrate it, to give students opportunities to practice and receive
feedback, and then to apply their new skills to “real-world” situations.

This all means that we need to communicate
our behavioral expectations to students, and then teach them.Functionally, this means that our schools
need to consciously and explicitly set aside time for social skills
instruction, and then embed the application of this instruction into their
classrooms and group activities, and (for example) cooperative and
project-based instruction.

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Student
Motivation and Accountability

For the skill instruction described above to
“work,” students need to be held accountable for demonstrating positive and
effective social, emotional, and behavioral skills.But to accomplish this, students need to be
motivated (eventually, self-motivated) to perform these skills.

Motivation is based on two component
parts:Incentives and Consequences.But critically, these incentives and
consequences must be meaningful and powerful to the students.

Too
often, schools create “motivational programs” for students that involve
incentives and consequences that the students couldn’t care less about.Thus, it looks good “on paper,” but it holds
no weight in actuality--from the students’ perspectives.

At other times, schools forget that they
need to recognize, engage, and activate the peer group in a motivational
program.This is because, at times, the
peer group actually is undermining the program by negatively reinforcing those
members (on the playground, after school, on social media) who are “playing up
to the adults” through their appropriate behavior.

On a functional level, both
incentives and consequences result in positive and prosocial behavior.The incentives motivate students toward the
expected behaviors, and the consequences motivate students away from the
inappropriate behaviors (and toward the expected ones).

But critically, educators need to understand
that you can only create motivating conditions.That is, we can’t force students to meet
the behavioral expectations.When we
force students to do anything, we are managing their behavior, not
facilitating self-management.While
we have to do some management to get to self-management. . . if we only manage
students’ behavior, then they will not (know how to) self-manage when the
adults are not present.

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Consistency

Consistency is a process.It would be great if we could “download” it
into all students and staff. . . or put it in their annual flu shots. . . but that’s
not going to happen.

Consistency needs to be “grown”
experientially over time, and then sustained in an ongoing way.It is grown through effective strategic
planning with explicit implementation plans, good communication and
collaboration, sound implementation and evaluation, and consensus-building
coupled with constructive feedback and change.

It’s not easy. . . but it is
necessary for school success.

But relative to school discipline, classroom
management, and student self-management, consistency must occur all four of
the other elements of the blueprint.

That is, in order to be successful, staff
(and students) need to (a) demonstrate consistent prosocial
relationships and interactions--resulting in consistently positive and
productive school and classroom environments; (b) communicate consistent
behavioral expectations, while consistently teaching them; (c) use consistent
incentives and consequences, while holding studentconsistently accountable for their
appropriate behavior; and then (d) apply all of these components consistently
across all of the settings and peer groups in the school.

Moreover, consistency occur when staff are
consistent (a) with individual students, (b) across students, (c) within their
grade levels or instructional teams, (d) across time, (e) across settings, and
(f) across situations and circumstances.

Critically, when staff are inconsistent,
students feel that they are treated unfairly, they sometimes behave differently
for different staff or in different settings, they can become manipulative--pitting one staff person against another, and they often emotionally react--some getting angry with the inconsistency, and others simply withdrawing
because they feel powerless to change it.

Said a different way:Inconsistency undercuts student
accountability, and you don’t get the behavior (or it occurs
inconsistently or differentially) that you want in class or across the school.

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Applications
to All Settings and the Peer Group

The last component of the school discipline
blueprint focuses on the application of the previous four components to all of
the settings and peer interactions in the school.

Relative to the former, it is important to
understand that the common areas of a school are more complex and dynamic than
the classroom settings.Indeed, in the
hallways, bathrooms, buses, cafeteria, and on the playground (or playing
fields), there typically are more multi-aged or cross-grade students, more
interactions, more space or fewer physical limitations, fewer staff and
supervisors, and different social demands.

As such, the positive social, emotional, and
behavioral interactions that occur in the classroom often are taxed in the
common school areas.

Accordingly, students need to be taught
how to demonstrate their interpersonal, social problem solving, conflict
prevention and resolution, and emotional coping skills in each common school
area.Moreover, the training needs
to be tailored to the social demands and expectations of these settings.

Relative to the latter area, and as above,
it is important to understand that the peer group is often a more dominant
social and emotional “force” than the adults in a school.As such, the school discipline blueprint
is consciously applied (relative to climate, relationships, expectations,
skill instruction, motivation, and accountability) to help prevent peer-to-peer teasing, taunting,
bullying, harassment, hazing, and physical aggression.

This is done by involving the different peer
groups in a school in group “prevention and early response” training, and
motivating them--across the entire school--to take the lead relative to
prosocial interactions.

Truly, the more the peer group can be
trained, motivated, and reinforced to do “the heavy prosocial lifting,” the
more successful the staff and the school will be relative to positive school
climate and consistently safe schools.

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In the end, from a school and district
perspective, these five interdependent and evidence-based school discipline
components are exactly what the Martin County School District in rural Kentucky
is using.And it’s working.Not perfectly. . . but surely,
systematically, and systemically.

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So. . . Let’s Get to Work:A Free Planning Guide

In order to help schools think about these
components more deeply, and begin to apply them for themselves, I am offering
the following:

* A
free Study Guide and Overview of my best-selling book:

School Discipline, Classroom Management, and
Student Self-Management: A Positive
Behavioral Support Implementation Process

This 138-page Study Guide (a)
summarizes the content of each chapter; (b) provides “study questions” and
discussion templates if a school faculty want to read the book together as part
of a “book study;” (c) includes a Three-Year School Discipline
Implementation Fact Sheet along with an Action Plan with specific
activities; and (d) gives case study examples and results from a number of
schools across the country.

In total, the chapters in the School
Discipline book and Guide cover each component of the blueprint
above.They are:

In addition, I am also always happy to
provide any School Leader or Leadership Team with a free one-hour conference or Skype call to discuss how to begin
implementing the blueprint described in this Blog, the Guide, and my
book.

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Summary

As we begin the “last half” of the school
year, we need to continue (or begin) preparing our students for academic
success by also preparing them for social, emotional, and behavioral success.

We have the scientific foundation and
blueprint for success.We only have to
invest our efforts in implementing the related strategies--like Martin
County--surely, systematically, and systemically.

Robert Collier once said: “Success is the
sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.”

I hope that the information presented today
will inform your efforts, and motivate you to take the first of the many steps
every school and district needs to be successful on behalf of all our students.If I can help you on your journey, give me a
shout.

Connecting with Howie

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About Me

Howard M. Knoff, Ph.D. is the creator and Director of Project ACHIEVE.After 22 years as a university professor and over 12 years as a federal grant director for a state department of education, he continues his national work as a full-time national consultant, author, and presenter.

Dr. Knoff is recognized nationwide as an expert in the following areas:

·School Improvement and
Turn-Around, Strategic Planning and Organizational Development

·Differentiated Academic
Instruction and Academic Interventions for Struggling Students

·Social, Emotional, and
Behavioral Instruction and Strategic and Intensive Interventions for Challenging
Students

·Multi-tiered (RtI)
Services, Supports, and Program

·Effective Professional
Development and On-Site Consultation and Technical Assistance

From 2003 through 2015, he was the Director of the federally-funded State Improvement Grant (SIG; 2003-2009) which then became the State Personnel Development Grant (SPDG; 2009-2015) for the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE). These grants funded the state-wide scale-up of Project ACHIEVE--especially its school improvement, positive behavioral support, and multi-tiered RtI service system components. Through the ADE's Elementary and Secondary Education Act flexibility process, Project ACHIEVE was the state's school improvement model for all Focus schools.

Prior to that, Dr. Knoff was a Professor of School Psychology at the University of South Florida (USF, Tampa, FL) for 18 years, and Director of its School Psychology Program for 12 years. He also was the creator and Director of the Institute for School Reform, Integrated Services, and Child Mental Health and Educational Policy at USF, and was instrumental in leading the program to the accreditation of its doctoral program by the American Psychological Association.

Project ACHIEVE is a nationally-recognized school
effectiveness/school improvement program that has been designated a National
Model Prevention Program by the U. S. Department of Health & Human
Service’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
(SAMHSA).Over the past 30 years, Howie
has implemented Project ACHIEVE components in thousands of schools or school
districts—training in every state in the country.He has also been awarded over $21 million in
federal, state, or foundation grants for this work, and recently received two
School Climate Transformation grants and one Elementary and Secondary
Counseling grant from the federal government to support work in Pennsylvania,
Michigan, and Kentucky.

Dr. Knoff received his Ph.D. degree from
Syracuse University in 1980, and has worked as a practitioner, consultant,
licensed private psychologist, and university professor since 1978.Dr. Knoff is widely respected for his
research and writing on school reform and organizational change, consultation
and intervention processes, social skills and behavior management training,
Response-to-Intervention, and professional issues.

He has authored or co-authored 18 books,
published over 100 articles and book chapters, and delivered over 1,000 papers
and workshops nationally—including the Stop & Think Social Skills
Program (preschool through middle school editions) and the Stop &
Think Parent Book:A Guide to Children’s
Good Behavior through Cambium Learning/Sopris West Publishers and Project
ACHIEVE Press, respectively.

Dr. Knoff has a long history of working
with schools, districts, and community and state agencies and
organizations.For example, he has consulted with a number of state departments of
education, the Department of Defense Dependents School District during Desert
Storm in 1991, and the Southern Poverty Law Center.He has also served as an expert witness in
federal court five times, in addition to working on many other state and local
cases—largely for legal advocacy firms who are representing special education
and other students in need.

Specific to
school safety issues, Dr. Knoff was on the writing team that helped produce Early
Warning, Timely Response:A Guide to
Safe Schools, the document commissioned by President Clinton that was sent
to every school in the country in the Fall of 1998; and he participated in a
review capacity on the follow-up document, Safeguarding our Children: An
Action Guide.

A recipient of the Lightner Witmer Award
from the American Psychological Association's School Psychology Division for
early career contributions in 1990, and over $21 million in external grants
during his career, Dr. Knoff is a Fellow
of the American Psychological Association (School Psychology Division), a Nationally
Certified School Psychologist, a Licensed Psychologist in Arkansas, and he has
been trained in both crisis intervention and mediation processes.Frequently
interviewed in all areas of the media, Dr. Knoff has been on the NBC Nightly
News, numerous television and radio talk shows, and he was highlighted on an
ABC News' 20/20 program on "Being Teased, Taunted, and
Bullied."

Finally, Dr. Knoff was the 21st President of the National Association of
School Psychologists which now represents more than 25,000 school psychologists
nationwide. He is constantly sought after for his expertise in a wide variety of school,
psychological, and other professional issues. You can e-mail him at: knoffprojectachieve@earthlink.net